Examples Of Hope In The Great Gatsby

Hope only Equals Loss From a young age, most are told to dream big and reach for the stars by their parents to build an attempt at a successful future. Sometimes, they are successful in achieving their dreams; other times they fail. Most pieces of literature also instill themes of hope in their reader’s minds. However, in The Great Gatsby the author portrays hope as a very dangerous thing that can only lead to the character’s demise. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel, The Great Gatsby, hope conquers the lives of the characters through Myrtle’s hope in a better future, Gatsby’s infatuation with true love, and Nick’s blinded idea of others. Myrtle’s hopes and dreams lead to her demise in the The Great Gatsby revealing the constant

Initially, Myrtle’s unrealistic goal to become apart of the upper class is harmless, but her actions, fed by hope, begin to rapidly lead to a horrible downfall. Myrtle’s fault is that she puts too much hope in Tom. This hope negatively affects her for the first time in their shared apartment. She trusts Tom to take care of her, but he doesn’t care as much about her as she believes. Fitzgerald shares that when Myrtle is shouting Daisy’s name to Tom to get a point across, he strikes her nose with an open hand shattering it with one movement (37). After this incident, it is not evident that Myrtle even punishes Tom for his actions. Her hope in others is so powerful that she does not entertain the idea that Tom cannot be trusted. He treats her with disrespect just because of the different social class she is in, yet she still trusts him. Carla L. Verderame shared in her Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature, “Myrtle Wilson die[s] in the prime of [her life] suggesting not only the fragility of life but also the complexity of social class and the problems that occur when desperate people hold fast to a

Ever since the first time Gatsby eyes glanced at Daisy, marrying her served as his ultimate goal. Her elegance and beauty captivated him completely because she was so different then anything he had seen before. In the five years that Gatsby lived without Daisy he felt a void in his life that only Daisy could fill, and no matter how many parties he threw and things he bought the hole would never be filled, argues literary critic Robert Evans. The only goal that Gatsby ever strived for was a life with Daisy, and he was extremely hopeful that he would achieve it. To try and ensure that Gatsby was successful he did everything in his power to recreate the past and get her to fall in love with him again. This included only owning the most lavish things. Mary Jo Tate, the author of Critical Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald, points out that Gatsby’s dream will never be fulfilled by Daisy. He hopes that he can turn back time and all will be right, but a lot has changed in the missing five years. Daisy has become a new person and Gatsby has a hard time accepting this. He is constantly aiming for a moving target. Fitzgerald describes this by writing, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It’s eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning——(180).” The